5 You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel-
5 For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard
5 For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel--
5 Look, I'm not sending you to a people who speak a hard-to-learn language with words you can hardly pronounce.
5 For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel,
5 I am not sending you to a foreign people whose language you cannot understand.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 3:5
Commentary on Ezekiel 3:1-11
(Read Ezekiel 3:1-11)
Ezekiel was to receive the truths of God as the food for his soul, and to feed upon them by faith, and he would be strengthened. Gracious souls can receive those truths of God with delight, which speak terror to the wicked. He must speak all that, and that only, which God spake to him. How can we better speak God's mind than with his words? If disappointed as to his people, he must not be offended. The Ninevites were wrought upon by Jonah's preaching, when Israel was unhumbled and unreformed. We must leave this unto the Divine sovereignty, and say, Lord, thy judgments are a great deep. They will not regard the word of the prophet, for they will not regard the rod of God. Christ promises to strengthen him. He must continue earnest in preaching, whatever the success might be.